Day 64: How much time do we have?

In a society where time is money, I ask yourself: how much time do you have? How much time would you like to have? Why and what would you do with that time? How have you been spending your time?

Poster design by Ignition Print

Imagine a world ruled by time where people’s lives are dependent on the time they own; people have to work to earn time and each action costs time. For many time is a limitation, for others not even the sky is the limit since they can have hundreds of years. Once you reach 25 you have to work to win time, otherwise your time is over and you die. There are different zones, the rich and the poor, according to the time people have to spend. In order to keep the population controlled, the time things cost is constantly changing, as well as the interest rates are always increasing, and people find themselves without enough time to survive. This is what the film “In Time” with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried is about.

Now: read the first paragraph again replacing the word time by money.

 – what do you find? Can you see how real this story is?

Interestingly, I would say that this is exactly how the world system works and how money is used today.

The main character of the film is from the ghetto and he receives 600 years after meeting a rich man who does not know what to do with the centuries of life he’s got. Will decides to use this time to bring justice to the system. In his mission he meets Sylvia, the rich daughter of the main owner of the time bank and together they will bring the system down by sharing the time equally to everyone – as she says “stealing what has been already stolen is not a crime”.

In this context I ask ourselves: How can we humans accept that some live decades while others cannot even survive the first day of their life?

The current system is definitely broken, just like the majority of citizens. Why do people seem to fear the system to change? Aren’t we intelligent enough to fix capitalism? Do we need some kind of super heroes to fight a system that is everyone’s responsibility?

Now: Imagine a world where everyone has equal money. By this, the fear of survival, the fear of losing, the fear of not getting a job and the fear of failing will simply not exist. People have all the time in the world to contribute to the world and to develop their fullest potential. Here there is no 1^st or 2^nd class since everyone is considered equally. Products are not built to break because there is no profit out of it – so all we have is quality products that will last to the future generations. Children spend time with their parents and people can swap houses easily because property is no longer an asset. A place where you give what you receive, enjoying yourself in giving the best of you. Justice is based on common sense and what is best for all. This is what the book Equal Money is about.

Nowadays, when I watch these kind of films I immediately think about solutions - in fact, there's no point in accumulating knowledge and information without applying it appropriately! I see that this is the big challenge we have ahead and changing the world towards equality is definitely not a waste of time.